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New Orleans Pelicans Rumors: Jrue Holiday Set To Make Debut, Tyreke Evans And Quincy Pondexter Could Return Soon As Well

By Daniel Benjamin
Published on: 14:21 PST, Nov 17, 2016

The New Orleans Pelicans could be at full strength soon.

New Orleans has gone through its fair share of adversity already this year. The Pelicans have yet to have every single member of their 15-man roster healthy this year, and as a result they have struggled on the court. The good news is that reinforcements are reportedly on their way.

ESPN has reported that point guard Jrue Holiday is slated to make his season debut on Friday night when the Pelicans host the Portland Trail Blazers (7-5). Holiday spent the last three months tending to his wife, former USNT soccer star Lauren Holiday, who gave birth to the couple’s first child and had a benign tumor removed from the right side of her brain.

Despite having to deal with difficult family issues, Holiday is ready to roll. He practiced for the first time with his teammates on Tuesday.

“Because my wife said I could,” Holiday told reporters when he was asked why he was returning. “It was really just to see where my wife was in her recovery. And since she’s doing so well, and since my daughter’s getting bigger, and since my family and her family are there to help her out with anything… I just feel comfortable being back and being able to leave them, if it’s on a road trip or whatever it is. As hard as it is, again, I’m really excited.”

Holiday is in his fourth season with the Pelicans. The 26-year-old has battled several injuries during the last three years, and the 65 games he appeared in last season is his most since being acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers on draft night in 2014. Holiday averaged 16.8 points and six assists and a career-high 19.7 player efficiency rating in 2015-16. His season was cut short after he fractured an orbital wall of his right eye during a game.

It is still up in the air whether Holiday will start against Portland, though it is unlikely he will. Pelicans’ head coach Alvin Gentry did tell Justin Verrier of ESPN that the six-foot-four point guard would be limited to 30 minutes on the court.

Tim Frazier has manned the point for the Pelicans with Holiday out. And he has done a nice job, producing four double-doubles along with a 2.81 assist-to-turnover ratio. The 26-year-old is averaging 10.8 points, 7.5 assists, and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 34.6 percent from beyond the arc.

Holiday returning to game action is not the only good news coming out of New Orleans as shooting guard Tyreke Evans also returned to practice on Tuesday. Evans participated in non-contact work during practice as he continues to work himself back from a cartilage replacement operation in his right knee that was performed in February. It was his third surgery on his knee in the last four months.

While there is still no set timetable for Evans’ return, Scott Kushner of the New Orleans Advocate tweeted that he could be back by Thanksgiving. Evans averaged 15.2 points, 6.6 assists, and 5.2 rebounds in 25 games last year. The 27-year-old shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 38.8 percent from beyond the arc a year ago.

The status of Quincy Pondexter (knee), the third member of the Pelicans yet to play this season, is a little more murky as general manager Dell Demps said that the team should have a better understanding on his health either at the end of this week or early next week. It is conceivable that the six-foot-seven shooting guard won’t play until the calendar flips to 2017. Pondexter has not played since the end of the 2014-2015 campaign.

Those three injuries are not the only ones that the snake-bitten Pelicans have dealt with. New Orleans waived veteran wing Lance Stephenson when he suffered a groin injury that required surgery in order to sign guard Archie Goodwin, earlier this month, so that they had enough active players. Center Anthony Davis (quad) missed his first game of the season on Wednesday, and is questionable for the game against the Blazers. In the meantime, reserve center Alexis Ajinca (left shoulder) is probable for the game.

New Orleans (2-10) has alternated wins in their last four games, falling to the Orlando Magic 89-82 last night. Power forward Terrence Jones led the way for the Pelicans with a season-high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds. Guards Langston Galloway and E’Twaun Moore added 15 and 14 points, respectively. Rookie Buddy Hield had perhaps his best overall game, contributing eight points, five rebounds, and five assists.

It has not all been sour for the Pelicans. Davis has been terrific all season, compiling six double-doubles and averaging 30.5 points along with 11.2 rebounds a game. He leads the Pelicans in total minutes played, points, rebounds, blocks, steals, field goals attempted, field goals made, free throws attempted, and free throws made.

Moore, like Frazier, has been solid the entire season while Jones has been fantastic in his last three games — all starts.

[Featured Image by Brandon Dill/AP Images]

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